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Trump’s governing strategy: Overpromise, underdeliver

The president’s spotty track record of bold promises has created a credibility gap – but his supporters don’t seem to mind.

By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM

03/23/2018 04:59 PM EDT

What was true of Donald Trump the Manhattan real estate magnate is true of Trump the president: He has a habit of making sweeping promises that net headlines, only to deliver more modest results. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo

“The final key to the way I promote is bravado,” Donald Trump wrote in his 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal.” “I play to people’s fantasies.”

What was true of Trump the flamboyant Manhattan real estate magnate is now true of Trump the president of the United States. From big, beautiful border walls to “total and complete” Muslim bans, Trump has made a habit of sweeping promises that net headlines, only to deliver more modest results.

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Sometimes, it’s because Trump’s rhetoric meets the reality of policymaking or the courts. Other times, it’s because Trump is making a grand opening bid in negotiations. And often he just loses interest. But Trump’s habit of overpromising and underdelivering has created a credibility gap unknown to the presidency in the modern era.

Trump, for example, promised a “big, beautiful wall” on the campaign trail, to be financed by Mexico. But a massive spending bill that Trump signed on Friday provides $1.6 billion for just 110 miles of wall along the nearly 2000-mile long border. And the money is being provided by Congress, not the Mexican government as Trump had promised.

There was also the Muslim ban, with candidate Trump calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” In practice, Trump implemented a travel ban targeting seven Muslim-majority countries, was severely rebuked by the courts, and has since implemented a less stringent ban on six countries.

Other times, Trump makes big pronouncements in the moment, such as when he seemed open during a televised meeting with lawmakers to sweeping gun control measures, only to backtrack within hours.

“He likes to play to television viewers by making big grandiose announcements,” said one person close to the White House. “When the issue starts to fade out in the American consciousness, he may not follow through.”

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He also made a big splash on Friday morning by threatening to veto the $1.3 trillion spending package — briefly raising the risk of the third government shutdown this year — before again reversing himself. The episode seemed to crystallize much about Trump: a surprise announcement, hours of suspense and then the resolution that was expected all along.

And while he has long delivered tough talk on trade, his controversial announcement of steep steel tariffs has been drastically scaled back with Mexico, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and the European Union — together accounting for more than half of U.S. steel imports — scoring temporary relief.

“People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do,” Trump added in the “Art of the Deal” passage. “That's why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion.”

Exaggeration appears to be as omnipresent in Trump's White House as controversy and staff turnover, a newly accepted part of Washington's day-to-day. For longtime Trump-watchers, the habit is hardly surprising.

“He is this unique amalgam of being an egomaniac and being wildly insecure all at once,” said Tim O’Brien, who wrote the 2005 Trump biography “TrumpNation.” “And he has this need, I think, in front of people to win them over almost regardless of who they are, and in that moment he’s quite happy to do that.”

“He doesn’t really do anything meaningful to try to follow up because he’s not patient and he’s not tactical,” O'Brien added. “It’s just Trump being Trump.”

And Trump has at times delivered on his braggadocious talk. For months, he promised a massive tax package, and while the economic impact of the “big, beautiful” tax cut is yet to be seen, it was still the most significant piece of tax legislation in more than 30 years.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump's verve for fantastical promises is seen as a potent political tool by his opponents.

“You need something that cuts against the grain or that you follow out to its natural logical extension even if the extension invites controversy,” said Brian Fallon, Hillary Clinton’s press secretary during the 2016 campaign.

Trump understood that almost intuitively, Fallon said, and with positions like the Muslim ban, he made it so that no other Republican could outflank him on the right. Such outlandish ideas, he said, “inspired controversy, inspired chatter ... and washed over the national audience just by the sheer strength of its own message.”

Trump has continued the grandiose pledges from the West Wing, adding to a chaotic atmosphere in which priorities can shift and policies can change on a dime, as soon as Trump makes a pronouncement, expected or not. It is seen as one reason staff turnover has been so high — but it might not matter, as far as his base is concerned.

“It clearly wears down his White House staff and his family, and it’s taken a toll on his marriages,” O’Brien said. “People who have to deal with it personally on a daily basis become unwound by it. But his base isn’t really dealing with him on a daily basis.”

“They believe that Washington’s the problem, I don’t think they blame the president,” said the person close to the White House. “They blame the gridlock in Washington that he’s trying to overcome.”